1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to refrigeration appliances and, more particularly, to a cantilevered shelf support in a refrigeration appliance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Refrigerator liners having large corner radii have been designed in an effort to improve the manufacturability of refrigerator liners, and to reduce the stresses in the corners of refrigerator liners, which are subject to thermal cycling. However, refrigerator liners with large corner radii incorporated into refrigeration appliances reduce the optimum shelf area of shelves mounted on shelf ladders in the refrigeration appliances.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,801 to Heidorn et al., the optimum shelf area is reduced by a ladder arrangement of stringer members which are provided for supporting a power-operated vertically adjustable shelf. Specifically, in order to provide sufficient space for the power-operated shelves, both the length and the width of the shelves arranged therein are limited.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,484 to Kesling discusses a convertible sliding shelf for a refrigerator having a curved liner. The shelf can either be supported for sliding movement on a frame, or mounted separately on the same brackets as the frame in the refrigerator. The shelf area cannot be optimized because of the need to compensate for the sliding frame along the width of the refrigerator.
The above examples illustrate that shelf area cannot be optimized using known shelving support systems.